Great craft finds at Daiso!

Daiso is a shop from Japan which sells everything at only S$2. I love to go hunting for crafting materials at Daiso because sometimes you can really get to find great deals for certain items in the shop! Apparently they have a USA online store!


Plastic knitting spool with a detachable head that comes in small, medium and large sizes! Make the changes according to your yarn and project requirement! Better than the one I got from Spotlight a year ago which cost me S$10 and only comes in one size. (=.=)



Magnetic spring frame for making little purses!




And my favourite, cover buttons! Make your very own buttons with the fabric to match your blouse! But of course I'm not using it for a blouse.



I used the scrap fabric that I had left from making my first blouse.


(^_^)v

Link: Keep Calm and Carry Yarn poster

Link

That's it, I'm frogging it

I took out my unfinished bag from several light years ago just the other day. Before I picked up my knitting needles, I stood in front of the mirror with the bag. There I stood, turning left and right for about 5 minutes, in front of the mirror.

Then I decided. That's it, I'm frogging it.

So I took out my scissors and started ripping it apart from the point where I stopped knitting and where I had made extra secured seal with fabric glue. With large and fast movements, my hands and arms worked together to pull out the knitted rows of yarn and rolling them together inot a neat ball. Row by row, the yarns unraveled until there was nothing left anymore. Nothing but a neat little ball of yarn, as if I had never made the bag before, as if I have never worked on the ball of yarn before.

Then, on the next day, I picked up my crochet hook and started hooking on the stitches. I'm working on a completely new bag with the same old yarn.

I felt a great sense of satisfaction.

DIY: Slash your old tee into a new one!

Materials needed:

Old, plain and boring tee

A pair of sharp fabric scissors

Fabric carbon paper

Rollers

Pins

Measuring tape

Slashed tees seems to be in season right now...

Link

And SO! I decided to make my own!

Step 1: The most important step! Choose your tee very carefully! 100% cotton tees will definitely NOT work as they tend to fray after cutting.
Do try to experiment with the excess fabric at the hem area to see if the fabric fray after cutting. Usually the stretchy tees are the ones that don't fray after cutting.

Step 2: After deciding on the tee, it's time to start drawing the lines for cutting!

Fold the tee into half by aligning the hem by the side together. Align the front and back of the tee well and then pin them in place.

Step 3: Start drawing the lines! I used washable fabric carbon paper and a roller. Fabric chalk is tricky to use on stretchy material.

You an decide on the length and width of the cut that you want. For my tee, I did 15 slits at the back, with each slit measuring 4.25 inches long (8.5 in when you unfold the tee), with the spacing of 1 inch for each slit.
Use a SHARP pair of scissors to make clean and straight slits!

Step 4: Repeat for the front of the tee! Due to the scoop neck design of the tee, I only made 13 slits for the front of the tee.

Step 5: Last but not least, make 2 slits on the sleeves as well! (If you are using a tee with sleeves)

Step 6: Pair your brand new tee with a contrasting tee inside and show it to the rest of the world! (^_^)v

DIY: Cupcakes for sale stand up sign

I've finally been able to spend more time at home to do the things that I want to do.

When I was doing my spring cleaning yesterday I came across this cute little Cupcake sale sign that I made a few years back for a charity drive stall. Perhaps I should just make a mini tutorial out of it.

So... here goes!

Materials:

A4 Paper
Glue
Markers, colour pencils etc

Step 1: Fold the A4 paper into half lengthwise. Without unfolding, fold it half lengthwise again.

Step2: Position the paper as shown in the picture. Glue the paper at the side with the overlap.

Step3: Design your sign!

Tip: Add extra details like the cut out "soft and fluffy!" to make your sign stand out!

And last but not least... the only surviving picture of the other signs that I made for the charity drive stalls.

COMPLETED! My very first blouse!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! After unpicking a million stitches and using up a few rolls of bobbins, I have finally completed my very first blouse that I have made from my dressmaking course!

Sometimes when I look at it I feel like laughing out loud because of the floral prints that looks so... "vintage".

So vintage that everyone kept telling me it's something my grandmother would wear. (-_-)''

My mum was watching my upload the picture that I took and even advised me not to mention anything like "I think this shirt is really pretty!" because I would be embarrassing myself. Nice. I don't care, because even though it didn't really turn out the way that I wanted it to be, I still think that I would wear it out! I just need a bit more time to figure out how to wear the whole look and stuff.

Be patient people! I swear that I would definitely wear it out real soon and post the pictures here! (^_^)

Meanwhile, I think it's time for me to keep away the sewing machine for a while. Chinese New Year is almost here and it's time to do some spring cleaning! I am so thankful for my very kind friend, Susie for lending me her precious machine. (n_n)

She's so lucky, she's a star

Everyone stand up and do a cheer! FINALLY!!! My very own lucky charm bracelet with charms made from Shrinky Dinks and others sweet trinkets that I have collected over the years.

I've made this almost immediately after I took those shrink plastics out of the oven the other day, but have only got the chance to blog about it now.

You have no idea how much I ADORE this new lucky charm bracelet of mine. (^_^)

DIY: Upcycled drawstring backpack from t-shirt

Pile on the Joy to the World!

That was what the t-shirt says. Not forgetting, " Gobble up these Thanksgiving savings", which sounded just like a promotional tagline in a supermarket during the period leading up to Thanksgiving.

My mum bought it for me YEARS ago. Great graphics, cute lines, but AWFUL cutting that wasn't the least bit flattering. Last but not least, it looked like a darn cheap tee. So it wasn't good enough to be worn as a tee. But I thought perhaps it may be good enough to be carried as a bag on my back! :D

This is how you do it!

Materials needed:

Colour cord (from Daiso, for just S$2! Do try to match your tee! I am using black because my tee had black prints)

Tee

Cloth for lining

Eyelets

1. Determine the size of the bag that you want to make, with considerations of the size of the graphics on the tee. Remember to leave extra 2 inches to make room for sewing.

2. Cut off the sleeves of the tee.

3. Cut the top and the bottom of the tee according to the markings that you have made when you measured the size. Then cut the lining according to the same size of the tee. For the lining, I made the cut in a way such that I will only need to sew the sides and the top. The bottom is folded over and thus do not require any sewing at all.

(I decided to use a very old teddy fabric instead halfway through the work)

4. Sew zig-zag stitches all around the cut edges of the cloth to prevent the thread from running. Or use an overlock machine if you have one.

5. Sew the bottom of the tee together. Sew a hem at the top of the tee, ensuring that the sides the tee is not sewn together so that the cord for drawstring will be able to pass through the hem. The top of sides of the tee should already be separated when the sleeves were cut in the beginning. You can determine the how much opening you'd like to have at the top of your bag by sewing the top of the sides together.

6. Sew the sides of the lining together. Sew a hem on the top of the lining, adjust the width according so that the lining fits INSIDE the bag (tee).

7. Thread the cord through the top hem of the bag to create a drawstring opening of the bag.

8. Punch 2 holes with the eyelet, 1 at the bottom of each corner of the bag. Secure the cord as shown in the picture. Try to punch through both the tee and the lining so that the bag is sturdier!

And there you've got it!

I like this new bag sooo sooo much! But my mum was saying that I am too old for such bags. And I wanted to take a picture of myself carrying this cute little bag as well, but my brother was such a bad photographer that I had to force him to model for the bag while I take the picture instead.

New Year, New Crafting resolutions

Ok, I know that my craft blog is getting awfully dry due to the lack of posts. Blame it on my busy schedules, which led to no spare time to craft, thus no posts to write. Then again maybe I wouldn't even have time to blog about one if I had a FO.

My crochet hobo bag (with Rastafarian inspired colours :D) is taking so damn looooong to finish. Oh and did I mention that I actually frogged it once? Because the base was just wayyyy bigger than what I had in mind. I wanted to bear with it, hoping that it will all turn out fine. But as I continued to crochet, it became more and more unbearable!


ok it looks damn big, but the base of the bag ends where I placed my crochet hook

So! New Crafting Resolutions for 2010:

1. Do more sewing

As I have mentioned, I have enrolled myself in a dressmaking course (*shrieks with excitement) and have the priviledge to use a friend's sewing machine while I am still in Singapore!

2. Finish long stalled knit/crochet projects

Erm... anyone still remember this bag? My almost-finished-but-never-done Summer bag. Seems like there has been no conclusion for the bag???

3. Start an IDEAS book

I have had sooooo many ideas swimming around in my head (among all the other gunk like the plot of TVB dramas and administrative matters to settle for student visa etc). Then just when I was going to start a new project, the idea just seem to have sunk to the bottom of the sea, unretrieveable until several years later, just like the Titanic.

4. Be realistic

Due to my busy study schedule, I have not been getting into crafts at all for almost one whole year! Boo. But I shall try to be realistic and thus these are my 4 simple New Craft Resolutions for the year. I will end right here right now lest I keep yakking on and the list gets to number 20.

How to make Coffins

A cross of cookies and muffins, Coffins.

Just add self raising flour in place of plain flour. Add more if deemed appropriate.

Oh, and don't forget a dash of friendship and good company.

Dressmaking Lesson #1

My very first dressmaking lesson! Finally got to learn dressmaking even though I still do not own a REAL sewing machine.

I had to bring a 1.5 yard cotton to the class for the blouse that we were going to make. That was the instructions from the website where I registered. So I thought that we were going to make a simple, basic blouse, something like a collared blouse or something.

My mum brought me to the old Woodlands Checkpoint market area where I bought this CHEAP floral cotton.

Surprisingly (and rather unfortunately), we were allowed to sew any kind of clothes that we want to! If I had known, I'd brought a picture of some Fendi or Chanel dress that I like and asked the instructor to draw that pattern for me.

But I didn't because I wanted to learn from the basic and definitely do not want to make a Fendi look-alike out of the cotton cloth that I had bought.

Sooooo... I have decided to make a blouse with collars and long sleeves that can be folded, secured with a tiny flap. I hope that the end product with look retro/vintage/bohemian.